Principal Investigator
Elaine M. Allensworth – University of Chicago Consortium on School Research
Project Description
This study analyzes chronic absenteeism among students in grades six through nine in Chicago Public Schools using longitudinal administrative data from both pre-COVID-19 pandemic (2016-19) and post-pandemic (2021-24) periods. The analysis integrates student-level data with school, neighborhood, and survey data, including measures of school climate, student experiences, and community conditions. The study uses cross-nested hierarchical models to examine the relative contributions of school, neighborhood, and individual factors to absenteeism, and student fixed effects models to estimate how changes in attendance relate to academic outcomes. The research also investigates how the drivers of absenteeism and its academic consequences have shifted following the pandemic.
Research Questions
- What school, neighborhood, family, and individual factors contribute to chronic absenteeism, and how have these changed post-pandemic?
- How is chronic absenteeism related to students’ academic outcomes (test scores, grades, pass rates)?
- How do additional days of absence affect academic outcomes, and do effects vary by level of absenteeism?
